"siders this step as evidently tending to
create
" unwarrantable combinations to excite an un-
" justifiable opposition to the constitutional au-
" thority of Parliament;"- and afterwards adds,
" -- It is the King's
pleasure, that as soon as the
" General Court is again assembled, at the time
" prescribed by the Charter, you should require
" of the House of Representatives, in his Ma-
" jesty's name, to rescind the resolution which
" gave birth to the circular letter from the
" Speaker, and to declare their disapprobation
" of, and dissent to that rash and hasty proceed-
" ing."
" If the new Assembly should refuse to com-
" ply with his Majesty's reasonable expectation,
" it is the King's pleasure, that you should im-
" mediately dissolve them."
This letter being laid before the House, and
the resolution not being rescinded according to
the order, the Assembly was dissolved. A let-
ter of a similar nature was sent to other Gover-
nors to procure resolutions approving the con-
duct of the Representatives of
Massachusetts-Bay,
to be rescinded also; and the Houses of
Repre-
sentatives in other colonies refusing to comply,
Assemblies were dissolved.
THESE mandates spoke a language, to which
the ears of English subjects had for several
generations been strangers. The nature of
assemblies implies a power and right of deliber-
ation; but these commands, proscribing